Acid Clouds, 2019

photographic research

Acid Clouds is a series of photographs that documents the material traces of virtual data in the Netherlands. Even though virtual by nature, data storage is currently reaching the point where digital concerns hit physical constraints. Experiencing the physicality of datacenters is one of the key aspects of the project. Night-time photography provides a certain degree of invisibility around these otherwise highly protected spaces and also removes the human actor from the image. The goal of Acid Clouds is to provide more honest alternatives to the existing visual and verbal rhetorics dictated by the tech companies. The photos are all taken from a similar points of view in order to systematically capture the spatial context of the datacenters and enable visual comparisons across different topologies. Discovering unique traits of the buildings allows to identify motives and agency hidden in today’s global cloud infrastructure.

photos in collaboration with: Roel Backaert